#tom is ethans dad CONFIRMED oops

[memories-are-mine]

We Survived the Crisis, Babe

As always, Comment to get on the Taglist!! 

Read the rest on ao3

Chapter 6 - Lex

Lex knew what she needed to do. It was a simple step by step. Get out of this stockroom, find Mr. Houston, get him to help her find Hannah and Ethan, get out of the mall. Boom. California. 

How she was going to do all of those things, Lex had no idea. She had no idea how she was even going to get out of the stockroom. Linda and her psycho cult were still there, weren’t they? 

Were they? Lex didn’t hear any of the clamor and she had heard earlier. That should have made her feel better, it instead made her uneasy. If the cult was here, then she could keep tabs on them, knowing for sure that they were still just worshipping Linda and not hunting down anybody’s sister or sort-of-boyfriend. 

If the cult wasn’t here, then where were they? 

Shit. Shit. Fuck Shit.

Lex needed to get out of this stockroom and get to Ethan and Hannah. In desperation, she looked to the window. She could smash it, and get outside to the loading lot. This was where all the trucks on this side of the mall unloaded their shit. There was a door, not ten feet from here that led into the Famous Footwear next door. She could get out, and get right back in without being spotted.  That was a half-decent plan. But if the cultists were there and they heard her… 

She couldn’t break it. But maybe it was already open? 

Lex crept to the window as quietly as she could, not daring to breathe, and ventured a look outside. In the first instance of something going right all day, the coast was clear. The cult must not have considered someone going out this way, and so hadn’t bothered to block it off. 

Sweet. 

Lex tried the window, and almost jumped up and down for joy when it began to slide. The window got stuck in a couple of places and required some effort, and a bit more noise than Lex would have liked, but damn if it wasn’t opening. 

Finally, Lex created a big enough gap for her to crawl out. She had to be absolutely silent. Even if Linda had sent all of her goonies out to search for Hannah, she wouldn’t have been stupid enough to send everyone. She’d have guards. Fortunately, she’d had some practice with this, thanks to Mom. She stuck her new pistol in her belt, and swung one leg out of the window, then ducked her head through next, twisting to catch the window with her left hand. It was sort of an awkward position, but it worked. Then, she swung out her other leg, shut the window, and behold, Lex the ninja was out. 

Lex the Ninja had a nice ring to it. Maybe she’d ask Ethan to incorporate it into one of the bedtime stories he took great pride in making up for Hannah. 

If he’s alive, the cynical part of Lex thought. And if Hannah’s alive. 

Lex tried to shake the thought off. If she got too caught up in thinking about what might have happened to Ethan and Hannah, she’d lose it. Then she’d have no chance of finding them or getting out of this mall alive. She had to stay focused on her mission. 

With another glance around to double-check that the coast was clear, Lex started to dart towards the shoe store loading entrance. 

It was locked. 

Damn it. This plan had been working too well for something not to go wrong. 

She could sneak back into the stockroom? Try another store? 

Sneaking back into the stockroom left her with absolutely nowhere to go, so that was out. Lex also didn’t have time to run up and down the length of the mall checking doors when Ethan and Hannah’s lives were at stake. 

Then, Lex heard a noise. The sound of heavy footsteps on the pavement. Someone muttering to himself. 

Fuuuuuckk 

This was bad. Really bad. If any one of Linda’s cultists found her, it was game over. They wouldn’t let her escape twice. 

Lex scrambled back towards the Toy Zone stockroom window and pushed it open. She started to swing back through the window when the figure came around the corner, and made a beeline for Mr. Houston’s car. 

Holy shit. It was Mr. Houston. 

He had his back to her. He looked a lot worse than he had that morning. His hair was a mess, and he was sporting some nice bruises, probably from the riots in Toy Zone. But he was alive, and looked in reasonable shape to maybe help Lex fight Linda. Lex was really lucking out today. 

She was about to say something, to let him know he was there, when Mr. Houston lifted his arm, and Lex saw what he was carrying. In a death grip, underneath his arm, Mr. Houston had a Wiggly. 

Lex’s hand went to the gun at her belt. She really didn’t want to hurt Mr. Houston. Maybe she should just let him leave with Wiggly, but she couldn’t do that. Mr. Houston had a kid. If she let him bring that thing home what would happen? 

And maybe, if Lex tried. She could save a few more people than just Hannah and Ethan. She was Lex Foster. She was a fuckin fighter. 

She made her choice. 

“Mr. Houston!” She said, climbing back out the window and taking the gun off her belt. 

“Leave me alone!” Mr. Houston snapped. 

“Turn around.” Lex kept the gun steadily trained on him. She wouldn’t use it unless she had to, but it was a comfort to have it nonetheless. 

Mr. Houston turned. His eyes were unfocused and glowing green. He looked first at Lex, then at the gun. 

“What,” Mr. Houston said, in the voice he used when he was asking her how her day at school was going, or reassuring her that she could turn in her shop projects a day late. It was understanding and kind. But Lex didn’t lower the gun. “You gonna shoot me, Lex? Or can I just go home?”

Lex didn’t move. 

“I’ve had a shitty day,” Mr. Houston said angrily. His entire tone and demeanor changed. The facade Wiggly made him put on apparently didn’t last long. “So I’d appreciate it if you got the goddamn gun out of my face!” 

“Please, Mr. Houston,” Lex said. She didn’t think she’d ever said please to Mr. Houston in her life, but if Wiggly could put facades up then so could she. “I need your help. Ethan needs your help. But I need you to put down that doll.” 

Mr. Houston started at that, as if trying to remember something. She knew Mr. Houston liked Ethan. While Lex was passable in shop, Ethan was stellar. It was the only class he actually enjoyed, and the only class he’d ever tried in. Mr. Houston noticed, and it was clear to everyone that Ethan, and Lex, who he started liking by association, were his favorite students. Sometimes, Lex would find Ethan in Mr. Houston’s room after school, chatting about mechanical physics or car models or whatever. Anyway, Lex knew that Mr. Houston had a soft spot for Ethan Green. 

“Don’t try to trick me with thoughts of the damned kid,” Mr. Houston growled. “Why would I give Wiggly to you, when you just want him for yourself! Thought you were better than that, Lex.” 

“No, I don’t,” Lex said, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. “Ethan really does need our help, Hannah too, and I don’t know who else to turn to!” 

“Well, too bad, Lex,” Mr. Houston shouted, so loudly that Lex almost wanted to hit him with the gun to shut him up. “Because I’m leavin’ and taking this doll to my son!” 

“He doesn’t want it!” Lex shouted. Maybe if she said it loud enough, it would get through Mr. Houston’s head. “Think about it, did Tim ever say he wanted a Tickle-Me-Wiggly?” 

She hoped to God she was right. 

Mr, Houston looked confused, like for the first time, he was pondering if his son really had asked for a Wiggly, as he’d been so certain Tim had that morning. 

“He, he must have…” Mr. Houston said hesitantly. “Yeah, we were trying to win one at… at Pizza Pete’s! No, wait… He said he wanted one this morning. Oh, whatever, I know he wants one!” 

“Lemme tell you what I know.” Lex changed tactics. If Ethan wasn’t going to work, then Tim had to. “I know your wife died, and you’re trying real hard to make up for it. But that is something you want, not your son.” Mr. Houston looked up at her, looking as if he was seeing her for the first time. “You think Wiggly can fix this hole, but it is a trick. And if you bring that doll back to your house, he is going to get hurt. I know it. And I think you do, too. But I think you’re scared, because if Wiggly isn’t the answer, then what is?” 

Mr. Houston looked at Lex, then back at the doll for a long time. He seemed to be seriously considering what she had to say. 

Please, please, Lex prayed. To Webby. To General MacNamara. To anyone that might be listening. Just let this work. 

Finally, after a million years of the two of them, standing in silence, Lex looking at Mr. Houston, and Mr. Houston looking at the doll, Mr. Houston spoke again.

“You’re not really that cute, are you?” He said softly. “In fact, you’re real fucking ugly!” 

Mr. Houston threw the doll on the ground and stepped on it, and Lex couldn’t help letting out a happy whoop. 

“Thank god!” She said happily. “Now, we just gotta get back into the mall, and we can find Hannah and Ethan, and get the fuck outta here! All of us!” 

“Lex,” Mr. Houston said. He suddenly looked incredibly sad. “There is something that I need to tell you. It’s about Ethan.” 

Mr. Houston could have punched her in the face, and it would have hurt less. Lex knew what he was going to say before the words came out of his mouth. 

“Ethan is dead.” 

“No, no,” Lex’s lower lip began to tremble. She felt like she was holding the weight of the entire mall on her shoulders. “No, no, he can’t be…He isn’t.” 

“I found him outside the Cineplex, Lex,” Mr. Houston went on, seeming like he was trying to hold back tears. “He had been attacked. Think he stayed behind to protect your sister… There... There was nothing we could do. Becky and I, we stayed with him, though. He thought Becky was you, told her that he’d get you to California…then you wouldn’t have to cry so much anymore… I damn near started crying myself.”  

Lex broke down, then, and just started sobbing there in the mall parking lot. She, like Ethan, never really cried unless they were alone. Ethan would wrap her in his embrace that smelled like leather and cigarettes, and stroke her hair and whisper things about California until she stopped crying. Ethan who was now dead somewhere outside the Cineplex. God, she just wanted Ethan. 

But now Mr. Houston came up and put his arm around her, and Lex didn’t push him away like she would have literally anyone else. She needed this right now. 

“I’m sorry, Lex,” Mr. Houston said softly. Now tears really were pricking his eyes. “I’m gonna miss him, too. He was a good kid.” 

“He would have been so pissed if you called him kid.” Lex almost smiled through her tears. 

“Yeah, he would have,” Mr. Houston replied with the same half-smile. Then it faded, as he pulled Lex up and wiped the tears off his face. “But those assholes, they took Becky and Hannah. And… And someone else.” Mr. Houston seemed to be struggling to remember. “He was there, with us. In the food court. I thought I recognized him… but, now… Wiggly must’ve fucked with my head.” 

“Whoever it is, we’ll help him,” Lex said firmly. She wiped her own tears away. She was on her feet now, both planted on the ground. The grief and shock over hearing about Ethan was still brewing in Lex’s heart, but she tried to channel it. Use it to make her angry. If she couldn’t save Ethan, she wouldn’t let his death be in vain. She would save her sister. “Linda Monroe is going to FUCKING pay!”

Taglist:   @hurricanehellion, @asshole-gay-797, @ethngreen, @just-a-side-kick, @theirishhufflepuff, @somegeekychic, @curse-brekker, @unusual-ly, @softotacoo, @believeinasmilinggodtoday,  @scorpiotrash468

[awigglycultist]

Okay hatchetfield zombie apocalypse au bc why not ("but tgwdlm is a zombie apocalypse" shh no that's an alien musical apotheosis and also this is won't be the exact same as tgwdlm)

This ended up being way longer than I thought it would and also kinda ramblely (is that a word??) oops. So read the rest under the cut

Okay this takes place in 2019

Emma and Paul are together, emam ofc suggests they going to her cooky reclusive biology professor

This isn't the apocalypse Henry excepted and he doesn't like that, but hey he still prepped for an apocalypse so he's safe

Since this isn't a musical apocalypse and it'd probably be pretty hard to get money off of someone during a zombie apocalypse, so he's currently not trying to murder anyone

He let's Emma and Paul stay with him

But then Emma is like "hey you have room do you think my nephew, brother in law and his gf could stay with us? The gf's a nurse she could be helpful!!"

He eventually agrees

Then Paul's like "hey my coworkers are kid dumb asses there's know way they're surviving an apocalypse on their own can they stay with us? And also one of them has daughter and the other has a little brother (cough cough HCB) them too?"

And then Hidgens ends up agreeing to that, and then Alice and HCB are ofc both like "wait hold on our friends-" (ie: Deb, Ziggs, Grace Chasity (this would be HCB's friends not Alice's ofc), Cineplex kid (because I said so) Ethan (also Tony, my beloved) Lex and Hannah (once again, because I said so, do we seem them interact? No, but they're friends now)

And Hidgens at this point is like "well fucking fine I guess so! Bring em here we have a bunch of ppl already so why not!!"

All of these people, living under one roof (albeit a very big roof) is ofc chaos!

I'd imagine ppl kinda stay in groups a bit tho. Like the teens stay with each other for the most part. CCRP gang hangs out together most. Ect.

Still, very chaotic. The teens (really mostly Deb, Ethan and Lex) causing plenty of trouble. The adults all being dumb asses. Plenty of arguments between Bill and Ted ofc. And probably several arguments between the nerdy prudes (grace, hcb and cineplex) and the other teens. Probably one fight between Alice and Ziggs but it gets settled quickly and they figure everything out and clear the air and become good friends.

I mean you think this amount of ppl, particularly this certain group of ppl, are going to be well organized durning the apocalypse? Hell no!

Hidgens is the only one that actually understands shit about apocalypse, he's the one who prepared! (once again: although for the wrong one) so he's constantly having to be like "no we can't do that that's dangerous!!" Emma, Alice and Lex are the only other really competent ones.

Hidgens ofc spends his time trying to find a cure, Emma helps him. If life ever goes back to normal she has an automatic A in his class for the rest of college just for going through this shit and helping him.

Tom, Bill, and Tony are the dads. They're obviously dealing with the kids. But the do mainly try and focus on their own kid because... That their kid ofc they care about them the most. But they try to take care of the other kids too.

Bill has a rough time connecting with anyone besides Alice. But Grace was always nice to him church so there's that. And ofc Alice has gf, a gf he doesn't like a ton but now he's very much stuck with so he might as well try and get along with. They eventually do.

Tom ofc like I said cares most about Tim. But after him the next he cares most about are CaliforMIA gang. Lex and Ethan were his students (I know it's not confirmed that Ethan was one of students but he is now bc I want him to be), probably his favorite students, and that Lex's little sister who's only a few years older than Tim, ofc he's also gonna care a lot about them.

Tony also cares alot about Lex and Hannah, that's his son's gf and her little sister, once again, ofc he'll care about them alot too.

Becky absolutely cares about all the kids a ton!! She's a nurse who works with kids, she's very nurturing and mother like. She cares for and about them all fairly equally but Tim is her favorite because... Well that's her bf's son and she's known him the longest out of any of the kids ofc. Lex and Hannah end up loving Becky alot because she's so much kinder and sweet than their biological mother.

Before the apocalypse Ted took care of HCB, now he's still taking care of him ofc. Ted doesn't want to be taking care of any of the kids besides his brother. He wants to drink and party and stuff. I mean it's the apocalypse so why not? But he ends up taking care of Grace and Cineplex quite a bit too. This happens not bc others aren't taking care of them, they are being taken by the other plenty well (like I said the dads and Becky all care for all the kids they just have favorites) but because they see HCB going to Ted for almost everything and Ted doing stuff for/helping out HCB so they're like "well okay guess we'll go to him too" He's not happy about it. He already has to deal with his obnoxious little nerdy prude bother and now there's two more? But part of them reminds him a lot of himself when he was younger. Maybe that's why he doesn't like them, or also maybe that's why secretly likes them a ton?

Hidgens, Emma, Ted, Tom and Lex are the ones that go out most often because they're the only who are really able to fight off the zombies and stay safe a stuff (okay Ted not so much as the others but they bring him anwyay cause Henry's like "he looks like he can use gun or something" and Emma, Paul, Bill and Charlotte are all like "this is a horrible idea don't bring him" but they do anwyay. He doesn't kill any of the others so hey why not keep bringing him? Besides if something goes wrong they can use him as bait or throw him to the zombies to get them off the rest of the group /hj)

Other ppl in Hatchetfield exist of course and are out they're trying to survive. Sam and Pamela are some of the first to die that's karma bitch

Lex and Hannah were living with Pamela ofc when the apocalypse hit, the girls wanted to go somewhere safer but Pam wouldn't let them, then one day she went out and got turned into a Zombie, the girls quickly took that as their chance to escape and they went to Tony and Ethan and then ofc ended up at Hidgens'

Charlotte was with Sam before he turned into a Zombie and then when he did she ran to Ted & HCB and stayed with them before they ended up at Hidgens'

Gary and MIAH are together and trying to survive on they're own. Sylvia, Melissa, and Greenpeace Girl end up meeting each other and decide to gang up together and they're badasses. Dan and Donna are two focused on the news and finding out if Peanuts is surving (which yes, Peanuts, (as well as Papa Ed.. At least for a while) are doing fine) and they die pretty quickly. Holloway and Duke are doing great, Holloway's a witch so yeah she's good and ofc Duke is with her so he's good too.

Lucy is in Hatchetfield and she's already in the woods vibing with Chumby before the apocalypse hits (THAM doesn't happen in this universe and instead Lucy ends up finding Chumby own her own because uh??? Reasons??? Idk bc I said so) the two of them have no idea there's a zombie apocalypse. The Paul clones take this apocalypse as they're chance to escape, Paul23 leading the uprising ofc, they don't kill Paul and take his place tho, instead it's more like "there's a zombie apocalypse? Oh fuck yeah!" *escapes* "oh theres a zombie apocalypse oh no-" some try to stay in a group and live together, some try to go out their own. There's now a bunch of random Pauls and Paul zombies around town. The main gang do end up seeing the clones and they're all just kind like "uhhh wtf???" except Paul, he's absolutely freaking out, the clones kinda are just "uhh haha how do we explain this".

Spoiler alert: the world isn't destroyed. How? Not totally sure yet but probably through Hidgens managing to find a cure and time travel. Emdriod has traveled back in time to replace Emma, but oopsie she didn't travel back far enough so she can't kill Emma in Guatemala, so she goes to Hatchetfield in hopes she can kill Emma when no ones looking and just replace her then, but oh no there's apocalypse so thats a much bigger issue. She survives easily, she's strong af, doesn't need food, all that jazz. She and Emma do meet each other and it's another "wtf?" "how do I explain this?" situation. But Emdriod lies ofc and kinda explains what happened but said that she accidentally time travelled and leaves out the whole wanted to kill her part. Now the Emdriod has found Emma she does try to kill her, that's awfully hard to do tho considering Emma is literally always with a group of people, and Emdriod doesn't want to just kill Emma right in front of everyone bc then they'll all hate her and her goal isn't to just kill Emma it's too replace her. She end up giving up and she runs into Paul 23 and they bond of my doubles of someone and wanted to kill that somoen at first and then fall in love and kill zombies together :)

Ohh uhh other ships: Paulkins, Lexthan, Barneston, Potseed (Alice x Deb) ofc. Charted, Obnoxious Teens (HCB x Cineplex Kid) oh and ofc Holloduke. Uhh Bill x being okay for once, Ted x probably not dying for once (not too sure about that one yet) Hidgens x not actually trying to murder someone for once

Wait wait I just got idea: the zombie apocalypse occurs BECAUSE of Hidgens, he tries too bring back the working boys (remember his original backstory with accidentally killing them and stuff??)

Okay I think that's all I got for now